Options abound for transferring film to DVD

Published 4:00 am, Monday, June 29, 2009

Q:I have a lot of 8mm and Super 8 movie film that I'd like to get onto DVDs. What are my options for doing that, and what do you recommend?

A: The world is full of companies that would love to help you. They include local photo stores (although they're a dying breed), and a host of Web sites - each with its own advantages.

For example, videoconversionexperts.com lets you choose the quality level of the digital copies they make (the higher the quality, the higher the cost). Homemoviedepot.com offers a flat rate of $199 for transferring as many reels of film as you can comfortably fit in one of their shipping boxes. And yesvideo.com lets you drop off your film at selected Walgreens, Costco and Rite Aid stores.

It's a good idea to comparison shop if you're going to use a Web-based provider. Not all companies can transfer all film formats (some don't do 16mm, for instance). And pricing can depend on the number of film reels or the number of feet of film - with rates anywhere from 18 cents to 60 cents a foot for a film-quality transfer.

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Q:I'm paying about $50 a month for high-speed Internet for my home desktop PC. I'm also considering signing up for wireless Internet for my smart phone. Would it be possible to save some money by paying for only one high-speed Internet service that I can use on both my mobile phone and my desktop?

A: Right now, there is no such animal. Smart phones get the Internet through a mobile broadband connection, while home computers rely on DSL, cable or dial-up.

You could use "tethering," the practice of using a smart phone (with a data plan) as a surrogate modem for a computer. However, tethering is intended for mobile devices such as notebook PCs.

It wouldn't make sense for a home computer. An Internet connection using the smart phone probably would be slower than DSL and definitely slower than cable. You wouldn't be able to use the phone while it's feeding data to the computer. And your wireless carrier most likely would charge extra for the tethering service.

At some point, big carriers such as AT&T and Verizon may offer a service plan that bundles residential Internet and mobile broadband. One can only hope.

Q:I'm in the market for a new television. I've noticed that HDTV models don't advertise picture-in-picture. Why not?

A: Picture-in-picture - where one program appears full-screen while a second program displayed in an inset window - is an idea whose time has come and gone. In the 1980s and '90s, many high-end TVs had the capability. The problem was that even the biggest TV screens back then were too small to make it worthwhile.

Picture-in-picture would make more sense on today's big-screen TVs, but alas, a comeback probably is not in the cards. To get two different programs at the same time you need two digital tuners - and HDTVs have just one. So do cable and satellite boxes. Sorry about that.

Q:The Windows XP system on my notebook computer is near collapse. I was about to scrub the memory clean and reinstall Windows, when someone suggested that now might be the time to switch to Linux. I use a lot of Windows programs including Photoshop. Am I setting myself up for a world of frustration by trying to break the ties to Windows?

A: Perhaps. I'm a big Linux fan. It's faster than Windows, and free distributions of it such as Ubuntu (ubuntu.com) and Fedora (fedoraproject.org) boast Windows-like interfaces that make them a breeze to use.

Unfortunately, a lot of mainstream Windows programs, including Photoshop and Microsoft Office, are not available for Linux. Fortunately, there are decent substitutes, including Gimp (photo-editing software from gimp.org) and OpenOffice (an office application suite from openoffice.org). Both are free.

You also can get free - and very good - Linux-compatible software for listening to music, watching videos and browsing the Internet.

However, Linux still has some drawbacks that can make you wish you had stuck with Windows. Some software is difficult to install (you have to type a bunch of arcane commands), and some hardware, notably wireless cards, may not work on Linux without considerable fiddling. So replacing Windows with Linux can be a crapshoot.

Bottom line: If you like your Windows applications and have a recovery disc for reinstalling Windows, use it.